Yesterday, I was si qin for worship (yes, pianist). I'm more used to the chinese blah blah blahs in church. Even reading an English bible seems a bit weird. I got the songs (not scores) at 3+ practiced for about an hour. I hadnt touched a piano since the few times i played twinkle twinkle little star in school. I waited about one month after my brain extension before touching the piano again. Now, I try to be on good terms with the piano so neither of us/me is injured. And worse, no proper piano training. Since there were no scores, I had to figure out the chords frantically and try to memorise them. But anyway, even if there was a piano score in front, I would get lost just looking at it. I practiced in easier keys but found out seconds before the actual thing that the key was not really singable. Then, panic. In the end, it wasn't that fantastic, it was alright by my standards, with some rescue operations by liang wen.
Today, I went to begonia crescent for xiao jun's birthday party. I reached at around 4 and went home at around 9+. I think I ate a lot. Good thing I played some badminton before that. After eating, I went to the playground with jian ling, yu xin, jean and siling. I played on the swings got a blister from the hard metal chain hanging from the top. It was slippery and I had to hold on really hard for dear life. Now, a finger extension but I'm (not) thankful it's on my right hand so i can (not) do violin practice.
Typing of extensions, I had another tragic extension later today. While walking along the sidewalk at begonia crescent, I tried to overtake dunno who (sry, can't remember as i'm ageing) by walking on the the grass beside it. I wanted to run to catch up with jean and yu xin who were bouncing the basketball back to the house. Then suddenly, I plunged one foot under. Half my lower right leg got stuck in a drain (the smaller ones, half my leg length, unfortunately) and I tripped over. I think we all know what happened next and I admit my sense of balance (better than jie ying's, hahaha) was disrupted. Now, my leg has an extension right in the middle and designs on that new addition.
I enjoyed the birthday party and thanks, xiao jun for your invitation. happy birthday!
There's geog field trip tomorrow. We're going to changi point and east coast beach. I hope my leg survives and doesn't give up on me. After that, it shall be time for homework-intensive. There's one long list of homework to complete and I typed it out on my phone and prioritised them. I will start on No. 1 and 2 tomorrow afternoon.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
My recount as far as I can remember for now
On Sunday, Jean and I walked home from church. It usually takes 15 minutes based on our walking speed. The funny thing is that if we take a bus, we have to transfer twice. Walking is therefore an obvious choice. So we were walking halfway when it started to rain. Crazy Jean wanted to walk in the rain but I wanted to wait till the rain got lighter. We didn't have an umbrella with us and we still had Bishan park to cut through. We stopped at a dead end (the mayflower sec school bus stop) and were busy weighing pros and cons before deciding what to do next. Then after "discussing" for a few minutes, an elderly Indian lady came up to us and told (ordered) us to take her umbrella. She told us she worked in the school and there were many more umbrellas there. We accepted the offer after rejecting a few times. She told us to help her throw it away. The umbrella wasn't exactly very big, but at least it was better than nothing. I think rain does something to Jean and my mental health.
Quoted from Jean's blog,
lynn: eh, the umbrellas very small. stand vertically!!
jean: huh? arent i standing vertically already? how to stand horizontally?
lynn: oh wait..haha
lynn: eh, stand closer to me, then wont get so wet
jean: we're already wet so whats the use?!
lynn: covalent bonding stronger mah..
jean: bonding?! with you? man, no way..
jean*in lift spiking hair due to wetness*: hey look, my hair can stand
lynn: eww, yuck. you look so wrong..
jean: huh? eh, not bad ok.. its one the rare times i get the chance to do this
lynn: oi, stop lah. you look very lesbian-ick
jean: wah, with you ar? no thanks man..
Well, in the end, we got drenched anyway but we are still thankful to the elderly lady. We were planning to write in to The Straits Times but we never got to doing it. At night, we went for the Sunday school's teachers' day dinner (no, I'm not a teacher). I think the dinner is more for teachers and their kids. And so Jensen and Jerome (cousins) were there. To mom, dad, uncle edwin, aunt adelene, ye ye and nai nai, happy teacher's day!
From Monday to Thursday, we (me, jie ying, ai, ru ri and joanne) rehearsed for the teachers day performance today (friday). We only confirmed the pieces we were playing on Wednesday I think. Music people are very last minute. For the CIP thing, I think we started actually rehearsing our confirmed repertoire a day before. On thursday, we had full rehearsal and we didn't really play together. I think it's because we weren't used to the sound on stage. We stayed back till 7.30 to practice the pieces and managed to polish them up quite a bit. Again, we were one of the last to leave school.
Mr lee is becoming nicer to our class. His speech came in hand because he just gave back the SEQ and I failed with 2/12. I interpreted the sources wrongly but at least he has given some form of hope. My combined humanities is plunging rapidly. Ever since Geog started on rivers, I haven't been doing well. I think the only reason why I was able to pass Comb Hum this term was because of the SS role play.
Today, we had the ACES day workout. It didn't last too long and it was because people couldn't contain their excitement during this that pushed back the rest of the programmes for the day. After that, jie ying and I went back to class and waited a while till 8.30 before finding ai, ru ri and joanne. We met and changed into our attire for the performance.
We practiced our pieces at the staircase out side the hall's backstage. I think we used that time quite effectively. We made some changes to the super mario score so it didn't sound like someone accidentally burned a hole in our score.
The moment we'd been waiting for (not for long though, again because we are last minute people) came. We set up our stands etc on the stage and performed. The teachers day song wasn't very well recieved, probably because it was short and they didn't know what it was about. There's always room for improvement, and so next time, we can put sub titles and have a singer. You Raise Me Up went pretty alright and I think it was more meaningful to the audience. Our surprise piece, Super Mario [theme (cut short)] wasn't really together at the beginning but we managed to get back together after a few bars. At the beginning, I could hear people laughing and I think I laughed a bit too (but no, not a laughing disorder, jie ying).
We were really thankful our performance had no major hiccups. Our first "music people" performance was during CIP a few weeks ago. That one lacked practice and it almost ended as a disaster. This time, there was significant improvement, but I don't think we'll stop at that.
After school (about 11.30), jie ying, ai and I (hahaha...) went to Plaza Singapura. We watched Money No Enough 2. It was quite funny yet portraying lives of Singaporeans. Our Singapore Spirit. After that, we walked around the mall until about 5 before going home. Ai is thinking of forming a band of music people. I think it's not a bad idea. We will probably be able to improve our ensemble playing skills if we do more of this "jamming". It's quite fun and I have recently started gaining slightly more interest in music. It is fun playing together and experimenting. Staying back late is fun but it can be costly (on time). So we should do that sparingly.
I got back the progress report today and I think I have a lot of work to do starting from now.
Quoted from Jean's blog,
lynn: eh, the umbrellas very small. stand vertically!!
jean: huh? arent i standing vertically already? how to stand horizontally?
lynn: oh wait..haha
lynn: eh, stand closer to me, then wont get so wet
jean: we're already wet so whats the use?!
lynn: covalent bonding stronger mah..
jean: bonding?! with you? man, no way..
jean*in lift spiking hair due to wetness*: hey look, my hair can stand
lynn: eww, yuck. you look so wrong..
jean: huh? eh, not bad ok.. its one the rare times i get the chance to do this
lynn: oi, stop lah. you look very lesbian-ick
jean: wah, with you ar? no thanks man..
Well, in the end, we got drenched anyway but we are still thankful to the elderly lady. We were planning to write in to The Straits Times but we never got to doing it. At night, we went for the Sunday school's teachers' day dinner (no, I'm not a teacher). I think the dinner is more for teachers and their kids. And so Jensen and Jerome (cousins) were there. To mom, dad, uncle edwin, aunt adelene, ye ye and nai nai, happy teacher's day!
From Monday to Thursday, we (me, jie ying, ai, ru ri and joanne) rehearsed for the teachers day performance today (friday). We only confirmed the pieces we were playing on Wednesday I think. Music people are very last minute. For the CIP thing, I think we started actually rehearsing our confirmed repertoire a day before. On thursday, we had full rehearsal and we didn't really play together. I think it's because we weren't used to the sound on stage. We stayed back till 7.30 to practice the pieces and managed to polish them up quite a bit. Again, we were one of the last to leave school.
Mr lee is becoming nicer to our class. His speech came in hand because he just gave back the SEQ and I failed with 2/12. I interpreted the sources wrongly but at least he has given some form of hope. My combined humanities is plunging rapidly. Ever since Geog started on rivers, I haven't been doing well. I think the only reason why I was able to pass Comb Hum this term was because of the SS role play.
Today, we had the ACES day workout. It didn't last too long and it was because people couldn't contain their excitement during this that pushed back the rest of the programmes for the day. After that, jie ying and I went back to class and waited a while till 8.30 before finding ai, ru ri and joanne. We met and changed into our attire for the performance.
We practiced our pieces at the staircase out side the hall's backstage. I think we used that time quite effectively. We made some changes to the super mario score so it didn't sound like someone accidentally burned a hole in our score.
The moment we'd been waiting for (not for long though, again because we are last minute people) came. We set up our stands etc on the stage and performed. The teachers day song wasn't very well recieved, probably because it was short and they didn't know what it was about. There's always room for improvement, and so next time, we can put sub titles and have a singer. You Raise Me Up went pretty alright and I think it was more meaningful to the audience. Our surprise piece, Super Mario [theme (cut short)] wasn't really together at the beginning but we managed to get back together after a few bars. At the beginning, I could hear people laughing and I think I laughed a bit too (but no, not a laughing disorder, jie ying).
We were really thankful our performance had no major hiccups. Our first "music people" performance was during CIP a few weeks ago. That one lacked practice and it almost ended as a disaster. This time, there was significant improvement, but I don't think we'll stop at that.
After school (about 11.30), jie ying, ai and I (hahaha...) went to Plaza Singapura. We watched Money No Enough 2. It was quite funny yet portraying lives of Singaporeans. Our Singapore Spirit. After that, we walked around the mall until about 5 before going home. Ai is thinking of forming a band of music people. I think it's not a bad idea. We will probably be able to improve our ensemble playing skills if we do more of this "jamming". It's quite fun and I have recently started gaining slightly more interest in music. It is fun playing together and experimenting. Staying back late is fun but it can be costly (on time). So we should do that sparingly.
I got back the progress report today and I think I have a lot of work to do starting from now.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Today and Yesterday
I just remembered something I learnt yesterday. While having lunch with my grandparents after church, my grandmother suddenly asked if my grandfather, jean and I wanted coke. We all agreed and she passed some money to Jean and asked her to get 2 cans of coke and four cups of ice with salt. I was not sure of what she was up to, but this later turned out to be a chemistry lesson. I shared the coke with my grandfather and poured the coke into our cups. The thing fizzled. I smelled the gas and tried to sniff for anything special but you can't realy smell carbon dioxide because it's not really volatile. We drank the coke and I immediately realised that it wasn't that gassy. It didn't really lose it's "punch" and it was easier to drink. Unlike the extremely carbonated ones where you take a sip and cringe before swallowing it.
The chemical equation: 2NaCl + H2CO3 --> CO2 + 2HCl + Na2CO3 (the basic reaction taking place, I think. I'm not a chemist!)
If my tagboard gets spammed for any strange reason, I'll know who it is. We were waiting outside the Humanities Room then Li Yi suddenly said she read my blog. Then a few seconds later, chandini, chen xin, vivienne and some other people nearby were saying "ay Lynn, you have a blog meh? Wow, didn't know..." then Chandini has decided to spam the board. But by typing this, I think I know it won't happen (think...).
My mom met a friend who helped out in the music ministry in our church before. He has a phd in violin so she enquired about handmade violins. He asked for the budget and my mom said about $3000. Then he told her the violins weren't really "handmade". Then my mom got a shock, oh so you mean I've been cheated by Synwin? Then he told her that those $15 000/+ violins were handmade by the masters. Those below, like mine were made by the "disciples". So when my mom reached home, she asked me whether I wanted the master-made violins or the disciple ones. Not telling my desicion because I haven't made up my mind yet. But I also learnt that Italian handmade (real) ones appreciated over time. That's a good back up in case am left with no more money next time, except the violin and I. But frankly typing, this will never happen because I am sure the violin will go first.
The chemical equation: 2NaCl + H2CO3 --> CO2 + 2HCl + Na2CO3 (the basic reaction taking place, I think. I'm not a chemist!)
If my tagboard gets spammed for any strange reason, I'll know who it is. We were waiting outside the Humanities Room then Li Yi suddenly said she read my blog. Then a few seconds later, chandini, chen xin, vivienne and some other people nearby were saying "ay Lynn, you have a blog meh? Wow, didn't know..." then Chandini has decided to spam the board. But by typing this, I think I know it won't happen (think...).
My mom met a friend who helped out in the music ministry in our church before. He has a phd in violin so she enquired about handmade violins. He asked for the budget and my mom said about $3000. Then he told her the violins weren't really "handmade". Then my mom got a shock, oh so you mean I've been cheated by Synwin? Then he told her that those $15 000/+ violins were handmade by the masters. Those below, like mine were made by the "disciples". So when my mom reached home, she asked me whether I wanted the master-made violins or the disciple ones. Not telling my desicion because I haven't made up my mind yet. But I also learnt that Italian handmade (real) ones appreciated over time. That's a good back up in case am left with no more money next time, except the violin and I. But frankly typing, this will never happen because I am sure the violin will go first.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
This Week
I will start with last Sunday (exactly one week ago). I learnt that my grandmother actually knows/knew how to play the piano. This is considered a wonderful discovery. She learnt it in secondary school but stopped after a few years. After church, my grandparents (the grandfather) drove us home. Nai nai can drive, but no one, not even herself, trusts her driving skills. When she was walking us to our house, she asked to borrow some (the only two) piano books we had. We flipped to a random page and she kind of knew how to play it. However, she said she needed to revise her theory as she wasn't that familiar with the bass clef anymore. To me, thats already an achievement because i'm only 15 and I forget things 5 times faster than her.
Yesterday, my parents bought this manual clock that has to be winded every seven days. It ticks rather loudly (I can hear it from here in the study room and it's about 15m away)and every hour, there's this "ding!" sound. The gears look very interesting. I tried holding the pendulum bob to stop it from ticking for a while. I think it lost a few seconds because of the abusive me. Hence, it decided to "ding!" very loudly to disturb my chain of thought. It can be startling if you are unprepared and irritating if you've been doing nonsense the past hour and just realised that one hour had just rotted away like that.
At around 10pm, Jean and I practiced the songs uncle lai kuen asked us to play during the worship service today. My dad was supervising us. He stood in my room and told us how the songs should feel like. Then there was this one that he classified as "romantic". Jean and I were looking at him and wishing he could play the violin and demonstrate. It sounded quite unromantic at first, but after a while, the usually unromantic dad was seen swaying with the music and smiling to himself. We usually just look from the songbook because there's SATB form there. Jean usually improvises on the melody (S) and I improvise on the harmony (A). The bass clef took some time to translate and I nearly died practicing "In moments like these (chinese)" because dad suggested I play the bass line but it took me about half a second to register the notes into a playable range.
While in the car going to church today, mom saw a vjc girl in her uniform and started recounting her school life in terms of the uniform. I learnt that she was the first batch of students in vjc and got to design the uniform. So she's one of the culprits behind that. Then in her secondary school, she said the metal buttons she had to get for her uniform had to be polished often or else they'd rust. Boys had to buy 7 buttons and girls, 5. But that actually depended on your height so if you could tuck in more of the shirt, you'd need less buttons. Then she talked about her siblings all following her footsteps, sharing the same schools. Then dad said, "you mean buttons?" and I nearly died of laughing.
So we played the six songs. My uncle edwin (dad's bro) was on the piano. We usually play with him and I also find it easier to coordinate with him. The part of the service where men are allowed to lead the worship (just go up to the mic and ask the congregation to sing something) is the scariest part for the musicians. It is more of a sight reading exercise because you never know what might crop up. I don't know which is worse, playing everything as it is in the songbook or improvising along it/going an octave higher at parts etc while sight reading. It's even worse if someone chooses a song with maybe 5 b/#s and you don't know what it sounds like. Overall, today went pretty well and my mom is getting more impressed at our playing each time.
Enough typing. Time to get on with work. I plan to watch table tennis finals tonight.
Yesterday, my parents bought this manual clock that has to be winded every seven days. It ticks rather loudly (I can hear it from here in the study room and it's about 15m away)and every hour, there's this "ding!" sound. The gears look very interesting. I tried holding the pendulum bob to stop it from ticking for a while. I think it lost a few seconds because of the abusive me. Hence, it decided to "ding!" very loudly to disturb my chain of thought. It can be startling if you are unprepared and irritating if you've been doing nonsense the past hour and just realised that one hour had just rotted away like that.
At around 10pm, Jean and I practiced the songs uncle lai kuen asked us to play during the worship service today. My dad was supervising us. He stood in my room and told us how the songs should feel like. Then there was this one that he classified as "romantic". Jean and I were looking at him and wishing he could play the violin and demonstrate. It sounded quite unromantic at first, but after a while, the usually unromantic dad was seen swaying with the music and smiling to himself. We usually just look from the songbook because there's SATB form there. Jean usually improvises on the melody (S) and I improvise on the harmony (A). The bass clef took some time to translate and I nearly died practicing "In moments like these (chinese)" because dad suggested I play the bass line but it took me about half a second to register the notes into a playable range.
While in the car going to church today, mom saw a vjc girl in her uniform and started recounting her school life in terms of the uniform. I learnt that she was the first batch of students in vjc and got to design the uniform. So she's one of the culprits behind that. Then in her secondary school, she said the metal buttons she had to get for her uniform had to be polished often or else they'd rust. Boys had to buy 7 buttons and girls, 5. But that actually depended on your height so if you could tuck in more of the shirt, you'd need less buttons. Then she talked about her siblings all following her footsteps, sharing the same schools. Then dad said, "you mean buttons?" and I nearly died of laughing.
So we played the six songs. My uncle edwin (dad's bro) was on the piano. We usually play with him and I also find it easier to coordinate with him. The part of the service where men are allowed to lead the worship (just go up to the mic and ask the congregation to sing something) is the scariest part for the musicians. It is more of a sight reading exercise because you never know what might crop up. I don't know which is worse, playing everything as it is in the songbook or improvising along it/going an octave higher at parts etc while sight reading. It's even worse if someone chooses a song with maybe 5 b/#s and you don't know what it sounds like. Overall, today went pretty well and my mom is getting more impressed at our playing each time.
Enough typing. Time to get on with work. I plan to watch table tennis finals tonight.
Friday, August 08, 2008
Yesterday and Today
My personal recount on what happened yesterday (7/8/08):
I got back the SS common test and the highest in class was 14/20. I got 55% (if you're too free or need to exercise your brain, you can calculate that). This is the third horrible test result in a row. First was a math, then physics, then this. For some reason, most people in class are deproving.
Before music, Ai and I (this sounds funny) were looking up and spinning in the area just outside the music room. We had a competition to see who could reach the wall first. Unfortunately, ms tan happened to walk in when we agreed to stop spinning. Then, we were bouncing off the walls of the space and i nearly collided with ms tan. She was in a state of shock. Then, ms tan surprised us by buying pizzas and chicken wings from pizza hut. Then she had a prize presentation thing, then we started lesson about 1.5 hours later.
Later that night, my mom got the email that linked her to the violin exam results online. Compared to my previous exams, I worked really hard this time, yet this is the same result as what I had in grade 5 when I didn't work hard at all. I conclude that my hypothesis was right that friendly examiners give low marks. I think I have to thank ms tan, jie ying, and other o level music people for that. But of course, not forgetting ms kwok and my family and other friends who have been supporting me all the time (sorry, i know, this is a thank you speech). I wanted to accomplish 2 main things this time, which are causing my state of depression now. 1. Beat jean and break her 3-time record. 2. Get a distinction because I've only gotten merit my whole life. When I saw the result, I was disappointed at my own, and even more disappointed at Jean's. (If you really want to know, here's a clue: jean's score is the 9th pentagonal number and mine is the 5th 14-gonal number. Any doubts, you can google it)
If you weren't really interested (thankfully), I got a merit again, and Jean got a pass. I don't know why. Jean got a distinction in grades 3 and 7, merit in grade 5 (because we really slacked a lot). I don't know why the result was so disappointing this time. When she is really interested in something, she really puts in a lot of effort. This year, she got carried away by other activities. I wish she didn't get influenced like this, but maybe this was God's plan.
Jean (i type this out because i don't want to say it out to you): you took less than 2 years to master drums, 7 years for the violin. Why do you want to give up now? I know it isn't easy sustaining interest because I've only just gained mine, but if you pick it up again, it'll take longer. But sigh, how can you be convinced? I don't want to force you to go for lessons because 1. It's not cheap and 2. If you really become interested in it again, you will be able to get a distinction as usual. My only request is that you practice regularly and help me for o level practical. I don't care if it isn't one of your top priorities. My last try at convincing you: do you remember what mom said to us after you came out of the exam room? She said that ms yao said that ms kwok told her that we were one of her better students. I remember we were thrilled. Since you know that, why do you have to waste your talent like this? I know if you really regain interest, you'll take the initiative to go for lessons again. I really regret beating you by 8 marks. I wish I didn't, and you had merit too. You beat me 3 times, yet I decided to fight on. I only beat you once, you're quitting already. Ever since you mentioned your decision to quit, I've been hoping and am still hoping you'll change your mind.
Today:
Celebrated National Day at school. Played dodge ball and it was fun. During the singing session, small flags were given to everyone to wave. However, the hall was quite crammed up where I was. When the songs increased in tempo, my head seemed to get whacked every now and then, especially when it came to the choruses.
We had the seniors and ms tan's farewell party. It ran quite smoothly. Ms tan agreed to spin around with Ai and I. She got giddy easily. Ai and I decided that we were professional spinners. After most people left, some people and I stayed back to play. We had a balloon fight and played captains ball with a balloon. Then, after a while, only ariela, pearlyn, nathalie, fiona, lynette and I were left. A lot of pictures of almost anything were taken. Then, we decorated the room with balloons and wrote messages on balloons and pasted them on the whiteboard and wall. I think ms tan will have a shock when she enters the room to collect her gifts. We cleaned up the room and left at about 4pm.
My new cousin, Ashlyn was born at about 1022. I think the timing was not bad, 08/08/08. And yay, it's the first female cousin I have! But on a sadder note, look at the age gap. 15 years apart! I really feel old.
I got back the SS common test and the highest in class was 14/20. I got 55% (if you're too free or need to exercise your brain, you can calculate that). This is the third horrible test result in a row. First was a math, then physics, then this. For some reason, most people in class are deproving.
Before music, Ai and I (this sounds funny) were looking up and spinning in the area just outside the music room. We had a competition to see who could reach the wall first. Unfortunately, ms tan happened to walk in when we agreed to stop spinning. Then, we were bouncing off the walls of the space and i nearly collided with ms tan. She was in a state of shock. Then, ms tan surprised us by buying pizzas and chicken wings from pizza hut. Then she had a prize presentation thing, then we started lesson about 1.5 hours later.
Later that night, my mom got the email that linked her to the violin exam results online. Compared to my previous exams, I worked really hard this time, yet this is the same result as what I had in grade 5 when I didn't work hard at all. I conclude that my hypothesis was right that friendly examiners give low marks. I think I have to thank ms tan, jie ying, and other o level music people for that. But of course, not forgetting ms kwok and my family and other friends who have been supporting me all the time (sorry, i know, this is a thank you speech). I wanted to accomplish 2 main things this time, which are causing my state of depression now. 1. Beat jean and break her 3-time record. 2. Get a distinction because I've only gotten merit my whole life. When I saw the result, I was disappointed at my own, and even more disappointed at Jean's. (If you really want to know, here's a clue: jean's score is the 9th pentagonal number and mine is the 5th 14-gonal number. Any doubts, you can google it)
If you weren't really interested (thankfully), I got a merit again, and Jean got a pass. I don't know why. Jean got a distinction in grades 3 and 7, merit in grade 5 (because we really slacked a lot). I don't know why the result was so disappointing this time. When she is really interested in something, she really puts in a lot of effort. This year, she got carried away by other activities. I wish she didn't get influenced like this, but maybe this was God's plan.
Jean (i type this out because i don't want to say it out to you): you took less than 2 years to master drums, 7 years for the violin. Why do you want to give up now? I know it isn't easy sustaining interest because I've only just gained mine, but if you pick it up again, it'll take longer. But sigh, how can you be convinced? I don't want to force you to go for lessons because 1. It's not cheap and 2. If you really become interested in it again, you will be able to get a distinction as usual. My only request is that you practice regularly and help me for o level practical. I don't care if it isn't one of your top priorities. My last try at convincing you: do you remember what mom said to us after you came out of the exam room? She said that ms yao said that ms kwok told her that we were one of her better students. I remember we were thrilled. Since you know that, why do you have to waste your talent like this? I know if you really regain interest, you'll take the initiative to go for lessons again. I really regret beating you by 8 marks. I wish I didn't, and you had merit too. You beat me 3 times, yet I decided to fight on. I only beat you once, you're quitting already. Ever since you mentioned your decision to quit, I've been hoping and am still hoping you'll change your mind.
Today:
Celebrated National Day at school. Played dodge ball and it was fun. During the singing session, small flags were given to everyone to wave. However, the hall was quite crammed up where I was. When the songs increased in tempo, my head seemed to get whacked every now and then, especially when it came to the choruses.
We had the seniors and ms tan's farewell party. It ran quite smoothly. Ms tan agreed to spin around with Ai and I. She got giddy easily. Ai and I decided that we were professional spinners. After most people left, some people and I stayed back to play. We had a balloon fight and played captains ball with a balloon. Then, after a while, only ariela, pearlyn, nathalie, fiona, lynette and I were left. A lot of pictures of almost anything were taken. Then, we decorated the room with balloons and wrote messages on balloons and pasted them on the whiteboard and wall. I think ms tan will have a shock when she enters the room to collect her gifts. We cleaned up the room and left at about 4pm.
My new cousin, Ashlyn was born at about 1022. I think the timing was not bad, 08/08/08. And yay, it's the first female cousin I have! But on a sadder note, look at the age gap. 15 years apart! I really feel old.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Today and Yesterday
Today, I could wake up at 9.45 because there was no tutti. After breakfast, I had to rehearse some pieces with Jean for a while. Whenever dad song leads at church, he almost always asks Jean and I to play the violin. I just took it as sight reading practice today. It was quite easy so there's nothing much to worry about. After that, I went online and sent Jie Ying the double concerto.
Yesterday:
The day of the concert finally arrived. We started rehearsing/meeting at 2pm. There were some problems with the lighting because our shadows of our heads fell on the stand and there would be one gigantic black hole in the music. After a while, the problem was relatively solved. Except that my scroll and fingers still casted shadows on the score so whenever we reached the bottom right hand lines, I had to either maneuver my violin higher or lower so Ariela and I could see. In the end, we decided to sit further apart so that there was no shadow. However, when the concert started, I tested my position and found that either the stand or my chair had been moved so I had to continue bobbing up and down during the concert. And another thing, Ariela and I got the stand that could not stand still. Whenever we flipped the page, the stand always spun. We decided to flip pages together whenever possible, I held the stand, Ariela flipped the page.
My fingers were freezing during the rehearsal. They had less kinetic energy and so reactions were slower. We ate dinner (mcd burgers because ms tan forgot to cater the food earlier) and then had a mass tuning session inside the small room. Joycelyn and I grabbed violins and started tuning them during dinner time but they went out of tune again so we had to tune again just before the concert started. When I finished tuning mine, I walked out and realised the concert was just about to start. This is the problem when I don't wear a watch, no time for mental preparation. Whenever we walked around, we sounded like a herd of elephants or we were staging world war 5.
The pieces were not that bad, at least we managed to always end together (yes, not start together). I am still very amazed at the blue tango. We started at different tempos and everyone was in a state of panic. I looked at Mr Lee and waited for some instructions or a hint on where everyone was but he looked just as confused. Fortunately, we managed to merge after a few bars, which is what still amazes me. Double concerto was ok, at least we managed to stay together (start and end together). The violin ones overpowered the violin 2s and ms tan wasn't playing the violin 2 part.
Our concert ended in about an hour I think. Then, many people crowded at the back and I was stuck at the door and couldn't go in or out. So I contributed as a door stopper. After that, mr lee and ms tan debriefed us and we went home. I think quite a few people forgot their shoes because I wouldn't have remembered if Jean hadn't reminded me. She said she specially arranged my shoes backwards so it looked like an odd one. When I reached home, I transferred the recordings Jean took with her hand phone onto the computer. She recorded every piece and I'm surprised neither her battery nor her memory died. The quality isn't good but it satisfied me for a while. because the mistakes were not so obvious.
Yesterday:
The day of the concert finally arrived. We started rehearsing/meeting at 2pm. There were some problems with the lighting because our shadows of our heads fell on the stand and there would be one gigantic black hole in the music. After a while, the problem was relatively solved. Except that my scroll and fingers still casted shadows on the score so whenever we reached the bottom right hand lines, I had to either maneuver my violin higher or lower so Ariela and I could see. In the end, we decided to sit further apart so that there was no shadow. However, when the concert started, I tested my position and found that either the stand or my chair had been moved so I had to continue bobbing up and down during the concert. And another thing, Ariela and I got the stand that could not stand still. Whenever we flipped the page, the stand always spun. We decided to flip pages together whenever possible, I held the stand, Ariela flipped the page.
My fingers were freezing during the rehearsal. They had less kinetic energy and so reactions were slower. We ate dinner (mcd burgers because ms tan forgot to cater the food earlier) and then had a mass tuning session inside the small room. Joycelyn and I grabbed violins and started tuning them during dinner time but they went out of tune again so we had to tune again just before the concert started. When I finished tuning mine, I walked out and realised the concert was just about to start. This is the problem when I don't wear a watch, no time for mental preparation. Whenever we walked around, we sounded like a herd of elephants or we were staging world war 5.
The pieces were not that bad, at least we managed to always end together (yes, not start together). I am still very amazed at the blue tango. We started at different tempos and everyone was in a state of panic. I looked at Mr Lee and waited for some instructions or a hint on where everyone was but he looked just as confused. Fortunately, we managed to merge after a few bars, which is what still amazes me. Double concerto was ok, at least we managed to stay together (start and end together). The violin ones overpowered the violin 2s and ms tan wasn't playing the violin 2 part.
Our concert ended in about an hour I think. Then, many people crowded at the back and I was stuck at the door and couldn't go in or out. So I contributed as a door stopper. After that, mr lee and ms tan debriefed us and we went home. I think quite a few people forgot their shoes because I wouldn't have remembered if Jean hadn't reminded me. She said she specially arranged my shoes backwards so it looked like an odd one. When I reached home, I transferred the recordings Jean took with her hand phone onto the computer. She recorded every piece and I'm surprised neither her battery nor her memory died. The quality isn't good but it satisfied me for a while. because the mistakes were not so obvious.
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